Preeclampsia

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ElizaE

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I did not know where to put this thread so hopefully it is in the right place.

I am a 3rd year medical student doing an OB/GYN rotation. Almost done thank goodness. I am seeing mostly Obstetric patients which makes it a little easier for me morally, but there are still cases that I do not know what to do. A part of me wants to observe the tubal ligation (which I did) but a part of me knows it is against my faith. The dilemmas… it is difficult. I have just been praying a lot for God to forgive me if I have done anything that could be considered as wrong but I did not know that it was wrong. I go through this every day and pray about it every night and can’t wait for this rotation to be over. I probably have sinned many times while here. It is a terrible feeling not knowing what to do.

Here is the case. A a young woman was transported to our hospital with severe preeclampsia. She was only 19 weeks pregnant (she was not my patient, thankfully). She was on the brink of death and they were postponing delivery as long as possible, however, she was a very severe case and there was nothing to be done (I guess). They basically terminated the pregnancy. I cried for that baby and the mom. As you can imagine the mom felt awful.

What is the moral thing to do according to the God’s teaching. I was just thankful that I did not have to be there.
 
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ElizaE:
I did not know where to put this thread so hopefully it is in the right place.

I am a 3rd year medical student doing an OB/GYN rotation. Almost done thank goodness. I am seeing mostly Obstetric patients which makes it a little easier for me morally, but there are still cases that I do not know what to do. A part of me wants to observe the tubal ligation (which I did) but a part of me knows it is against my faith. The dilemmas… it is difficult. I have just been praying a lot for God to forgive me if I have done anything that could be considered as wrong but I did not know that it was wrong. I go through this every day and pray about it every night and can’t wait for this rotation to be over. I probably have sinned many times while here. It is a terrible feeling not knowing what to do.

Here is the case. A a young woman was transported to our hospital with severe preeclampsia. She was only 19 weeks pregnant (she was not my patient, thankfully). She was on the brink of death and they were postponing delivery as long as possible, however, she was a very severe case and there was nothing to be done (I guess). They basically terminated the pregnancy. I cried for that baby and the mom. As you can imagine the mom felt awful.

What is the moral thing to do according to the God’s teaching. I was just thankful that I did not have to be there.
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This is very tough. If I were you, I would not worry about having done something wrong, but would get a quick education on the subject pronto. I don’t know the official name of the organization, but there is an association of Catholic physicians, and you could also contact Priests for Life. I am sure there are abundant resources to help health care workers work through the maze of issues concerning reproductive health.
 
wow… what a dilemna… I will keep you in our prayers, as that mother and her baby.

If I remember correctly, if the medical procedure has the intent to save the mothers’ life but it has a passive result of termination of pregnancy, it’s ok. Much like an ectopic pregnancy. I believe that directly killing the baby to save the mother is wrong, as I feel for you and the mother in this case because (correct me if I’m wrong) the only way to “cure” pre-eclampsia is to give birth.
 
Hi-

I believe there are cases where abortion, if an act that is an unintended consequence of medical treatment to save the life of the mother, are allowed. BUT I’m no expert and actually the case of St. Gianna comes to mind who died rather than end the life of her child, so now I’m confused too. :confused:

I think there are plenty of discussions here that talk about the subject, I’m sure at least one has some more knowledgeable information about what the Church teaches than what i have given you, which is squat!! 😉 Try the search function…

I tried to paste a link to the National Catholic Bioethics Center, but the page wasn’t available. I would try to contact them if you could, especially since you seem to be an orthodox Catholic. I think it would be such a blessing to have more truly Catholic medical professionals who weigh Catholic morality!! There are so few. 😦

Auugh! Found it, my saved link must be bad:
ncbcenter.org/

God Bless and good luck on your journey!
 
If the baby is delivered early (any gestational age) in order to save the life of the mom, and dies as a result of being too undeveloped, it is ok (severe premature birth as the cause of death) (If there are any treatments that might be able to help save the life of the baby upon birth, or to lessen any pain, they must be applied). Medical treatments nessesary to save the life of the mom, which would have the unintended (but not unanticipated) result of killing the baby are ok (abdominal surgery, intense chemo, etc.).

If the baby is actively killed in the womb to save the mom (abortion) then it is wrong.
Gianna Mola is considered to have exhibited HEROIC VIRTUE by denying medical treatment that would have had the unintended, (but anticipated) effect of killing her child. She was not required to do this, this is why she is a saint.
Same with sterilaizations- if a woman needs a hysterectomy, etc. to save her live, etc. it is ok. The sterilizing effect of the nessesary medical procedure is unintended (but certian).

It is NOT ok to have these sterilizing treatments if PREGNANCY would cause heath problems, or even death. In these cases, NFP must be used, not sterilization.
I think your culpibility at this point is very little, if at all, if you are just observing these procedures as a nessesary part of your degree. I don’t think you are allowed to participate in any sterilizing procedures at all.( I don’t think you can be a part of an abortion at all b/c it might be morally nessesary to try to step in and save the life of the baby)

(I don’t know if my advice in this last section is for certian- please ask your priest.)
 
**Inducing labor to save the life of the mom is morally OK as long as the intent is not to kill the baby, even if they know the baby will die, which, at 19 weeks, s/he was likely to do. This was a medical emergency. Poor mom and baby. **
 
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